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Saturday, February 13, 2016

February Update - Tile Headaches!

It has been a month since our last update. Not at lot has happened however from our perspective there has been a lot of ups and downs.

We have spent the last 4 weeks in and out of display homes trying to find some colour and tile options we like to prepare us for our colour and electrical appointments in March.

Natalie and I also spent quite a lot of time searching the internet for inspiration and found that we really liked the idea of wood style tiles. You would get the durability of tiles with the look for wood flooring. The best of both worlds!

Wood style tiles found at Elegance Tiles

With some ideas in mind we made contact with Boutique homes and asked if we could bring the above tiles to the build instead of choosing from the Boutique range. In response we were advised that we could bring our own tiles however Boutique still had to tile the wet areas before hand over so they could receive the certificate of occupancy. We felt that this wasn't an option for us as we had changed our passageway from carpet to tiles and that connected the living areas to the bathroom and powder room. We didn't want to have two different tiles side by side on the floor.

After speaking with Boutique some more they advised us we could go for a visit through Hynes Tiles. Hynes supply all the tiles to the Boutique homes and we were advised that whatever tiles Hynes had available we could choose for our build. Natalie phoned Hynes and booked an appointment and we went for a visit.

Hynes doesn't really have an official show room. Just a small room above their head office which has samples of the tiles they supply. As luck would have it, they had some beautiful tiles. We fell in love with a 300X1500 wood style tile. Yes, that is 300mmX1500mm!

The Hynes 300X1500 tile made in Italy.

We took some pictures and wrote down the information and with the excitement back in our steps we headed out. Later that night I emailed Boutique with the tile selection information and asked for a price.

A few days later we received word back from Boutqiue who advised us that to do all the living/dining/kitchen and passage areas it would cost around $15,000! A lot more than we expected however something that we really considered going with anyway to achieve the look we wanted!

However this was not to be with Boutique emailing me again 5 minutes later advising that they couldn't actually install this tile as Boutique doesn't work with tiles over 600mm in length!!

This was a surprise. Neither Boutique or Hynes had mentioned this important fact and if they had we wouldn't have spent weeks looking at tiles that we couldn't even select. It really ruined the day for us and all the excitement we had felt after finding 'the' tile disappeared.

Natalie then remembered that we had seen longer than 600mm tiles in one of the Boutique display homes. We went back through our photos and found the 900mmX200mm tile in the Montauk display in Point Cook. I emailed Boutique again with this fact and received an email back advising that they would have to honor the tile choice that is on display in the Montauk.

This now meant we had the option to go for a longer tile again however we were begining to feel like we were becoming a difficult customer.

900mm long tile in Montauk Display in Point Cook.

Natalie and I had a day off together and went out for a drive to view the display homes in Point Cook and the newly opened displays in Werribee. Initially we really liked the look of the 900mm long tile. We were not sold on the colour however were hoping that there was another option in the show room. We took some photos and then head over to the new displays in Weribbee.

We hit the jackpot with the two new displays. The Chelsea display is beautiful and we loved the colour style throughout the home. We took photos of the walls and a couple of different tiles we liked. We didn't see any floor tiles were were interested in however finding colours that we liked was a great feeling.

Chelsea Kitchen (We love the splash-back tile)

Chelsea wall colours. Bad lighting however you can see the hints of colour

Then we walked into the Riviera. It is an almost identical floor plan to the St Tropez however a bit wider and longer and it has an extra rumpus style room at the back. The living room / kitchen is set up much the same as the St Tropez and the display had the extended alfresco which really helped visualise what our home will look like.

The colours used in the kitchen area pretty much exactly what we had thought about choosing in our initial PWC consultation. It was perfect to see it set out and it just confirmed to us that these were the colours for us.

Riviera Display

We then looked down. We didn't really notice the tiles at first as they were square and all through our journey we hadn't been looking at square tiles however there was something about these that caught our eyes.

They are 600mmX600mm concrete look porcelain floor tiles. We aren't sure of the category that they sit in however we are assuming that it will be Cat 4 or above. We have emailed Boutique to ask.

The more we looked at them the more we loved them. We spent 20 minutes in the display and most of that time was looking at the floors. Being able to see the tiles next to the kitchen colour scheme we wanted was an excellent help and by the time we thought it time to leave the display we had decided that we had found our new floor tile. Now we just have to wait for the email reply from Boutique advising us what the cost will be.

When we got home Nat and I sat down and worked out what our tile selections would be for each room. At this stage they are as follows.

Exactly how our ensuite will look. This is on display a the Barcelona display in Point Cook

Splash-back tile. We may or may not use this in our kitchen.

Floor Tiles in all areas except Ensuite

After 4 weeks of looking at tiles and the ups and downs involved we finally feel like we have a clear picture of what our home will look like. The excitement is creeping back into our lives and we can't wait for the colour and electrical appointments.

11 comments:

Nice choices Ben! Your house will look very connected with the uniform tiles.

Have they set the date for the appointment?

For bathroom, I don't know the tiles but I'm guessing it's the Abyss olive (I might be wrong though) http://www.tilesrepublic.com.au/products/abyss-olive-matt-300x600 This is cat 3 (cat 4 in new pricing)

Floor tiles, I'm guessing it is cat 4 but cannot be sure of the name :-/ closest internet pic is the Uptown http://www.tilestonepaver.com.au/epages/shop.sf/en_AU/?ObjectPath=/Shops/frankcorp/Products/YR5038AL (all the links were when I was preparing for the appointment from NSW)